Starlit Streak
by Shadow Griffin
Summary: Two months after her trial, Ahsoka can't help but worry over the things she shouldn't. She wants things to happen quicker...and she worries over the fate of another. Sequel 1/2 of ToC.


Alright! Yay! Whooooo! This is sequel 1 of 2 that will follow ToC (Tribulation of the Chosen). Since quite a few people like both Ahsoka and Djibourdi, there will be two sequels, this one being Ahsoka's. Obviously since Dji is my own and has no air time, his will be a bit longer than Ahsoka's. This one is hers.

Summary: Two months after her trial, Ahsoka can't help but worry over the things she shouldn't. She wants things to happen quicker...and she worries over the fate of another.

Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own anything. Please don't assume I do, I do this as a bit of a venting mechanism.

Please read and review, guys. A long, LONG time ago I made a promise to someone to write a fic with Ahsoka and Plo, and finally I have gotten to it. Child- ofthekindlywest, it is finally here. :) The characters in this pic were based on this request.

I am trying to waste time while waiting on a rather worrying call from my doctor, so maybe or maybe not I will begin the next sequel soon for all who would like to read it. :)

Read, love, review, do not flame me. Work retail = I do not take flames on here too. I get enough of that junk irl.

Much love, folks. Please enjoy.

Happy Writing,

~Eliana

**IOIOIOIOIOIOI**

It was with a sharp breath that Ahsoka pulled herself up once again on the pull-up bar, her arms trembling to obey what her brain told them to do – another pull-up. At least one more. Then another one after that. It wasn't enough yet. Her grip suddenly loosened and she dropped to the floor in a crouch, allowing herself just a moment to rest her arms and hands on her bent knees as she breathed, trying to catch her breath and get the precious oxygen to her burning muscles. Anakin hadn't let her join the unit again, not yet – so she spent her days here, in the decent-sized workout gym in the Jedi Temple instead of on youngling duty or wasting the time in her bedroom alone studying some boring holobook.

It had been two months since she had come back, two months since the fight had begun to get her body back. And, ironically, it seemed that ever since she had finally been able to get herself back on her feet and her body slowly back to full strength, it itself had decided that this time was a beautiful time to hit puberty with full-force. Her whole body had begun to change – her montrals slowly growing taller, the lekku on her head beginning to gather a decent length, and, in truth to the anatomy of her people, her body putting on the light muscle that even adorned the female Togrutans. She was getting a fair build to her, but she still wasn't at the level she wanted to be.

Ahsoka's lip twitched as she stood. Moving to the far side of the open space in the gym, she stood straight and closed her eyes to gather her focus for a long moment. After a steadying breath she leapt backward in a series of backflips. Hands, feet, hands, feet, hands, fee – oh Force! The slight misguidance by her own balance had her hitting the floor's safety mat hard, hard enough that she felt the air whoosh with such a ferocity out of her lungs that she just chose to lie there on her back and stare with disdain at the off-white ceiling.

So that didn't go as planned. What did? What had since she got back? She raised one eyebrow ridge when an all-too-familiar, masked face suddenly peered down on her. He raised a ridge himself.

"Koh-toh-yah, Master Plo," Ahsoka rasped out, her breath finally coming back to her.

"Koh-toh-yah, Little 'Soka," The Keldorian responded carefully, observing the situation he had wondered into incidentally.

He had just been meandering down the halls when he heard someone (whoever it was had to be fairly dedicated to be in the gym at eleven at night) in the large room, so he had peered in to find his young friend flat-out on the floor, looking a bit like she had been plunged from some great height off of a speeder and impacted the ground below. In any other context it actually would have been quite amusing to him to see her sprawled out like that, but upon further examination he could see the tell-tale signs of exhaustion. Togrutans had a habit of oddly cocking their heads a bit to one side when they grew very fatigued – perhaps some way of evening the pressure in their montrals, he could only assume – and true to that, little Ahsoka (though becoming not so little anymore) lay flat on her back but still had her head tipped slightly to her right shoulder. Sweat gleamed on her exposed arms and collarbone, and the ever-faint rumbling gasps could be heard escaping the girl's lungs as she tried to hide them.

"You seem to have worn yourself out, young one," the Jedi Master observed rather flatly, and it earned him a sour look.

"Obviously."

Ah, there she was – that was his Little 'Soka who rolled her eyes at him despite knowing it was wrong to do so. He shouldn't have been amused, but of course he was. It was good for his heart to see his precious little one at least feeling well enough to have her attitude back...ever since she had come back from Shili she had become complacent and oddly quiet, so far from the snippy, arrogant child he had brought to the Temple all those years ago. Only a couple of times did she show the signs of being her little arrogant self again, but it wasn't until that very moment that she actually showed her true colors again. That alone was enough for him.

It was a shame that Skywalker had to be gone for so long, but this was a war. He had been given two weeks upon Ahsoka's return to spend with his padawan and help her recover her strength – which he had, even at one point swallowing his pride long enough to listen to one of the little stories she had written while resting in the Gardens. In all inevitability Skywalker was forced to leave again, passing his padawan off into the capable and watchful eyes and hands of the Council while he headed off to the frontlines once again. Ahsoka had spent and equal amount of time between the guidance of Master Kenobi, Master Plo, and on her lonesome, that thanks to her oddly innate and sudden urge to seek solitude while she rebuilt herself.

She couldn't have ever imagined herself just six months ago in the position she was now in. She had been strong, healthy, YOUNG. Confident. Arrogant.

There was the irony. She had been so arrogant, so confident – maybe TOO confident. She did realize that now after all of this, after all of the humiliation, sickness, worry, loss. She had been getting over-confident, and she did realize now that that was absolutely no way for any Jedi to be. She had been knocked straight down to size, and the Force had done it so strongly that she was still reeling even now that it was all completely over and done with. Ahsoka only wished that the lesson had been just a bit easier.

She sat up slowly, turning on her rump to face her old friend as he sat across from her on the padded floor. He was watching her slowly re-enter her old self...in a very different body. She was beginning to get bigger, her body was lengthening and shaping into the elegant form of her people with each day that passed by. This was still his Little 'Soka, just not so little anymore. She was becoming a woman.

She had begun to dress different since her return – leggings, longer-sleeved shirts, anything she could use to cover the scars that now dotted her body from the trial. Still around her neck was the little white pearl, the diamond-shaped little thing that she refused to part with ever. It was forbidden for Jedi to keep personal items, yet it hardly seemed THAT personal... honestly it seemed like it belonged with her.

Ahsoka met his eyes.

"Master Plo, don't stare," she told him quietly, and he dipped his head slightly with a chuckle.

"I apologize, young one," Plo told her, "Just musing is all."

She gave a good-humored snort.

"That's what happens when you get a little too old for the Jedi business."

She gave him a weak smile at his disapproving look, but he didn't miss the flash of exhaustion in her eyes as she crossed her legs in front of her. The master gave a soft hum in musing.

"How long do you plan to keep training like this, Little 'Soka?"

"How long will it take for Anakin to let me back onto the frontlines?"

The question took the Keldorian by surprise. It wasn't like Ahsoka at all to dig into any subject...in all honesty, while he did feel affection for the girl, Plo couldn't help but admit that she was just the slightest bit fickle. Or she had been. Ahsoka had always been one to take things at face-value and never truly thought to over-think really anything. She would act on things as they came, right as they came, and how they came – no second thoughts, no real thought process. Apparently that, too, had changed. He picked his words carefully.

"He will take you when you are ready."

"Then that long," was her short answer with no hesitance. It made him, the great Master Plo, do a double-take.

She was pushing herself much farther than she should have been pushing herself at a point months from now, although he couldn't say that she wasn't getting results. She had indeed filled her once-atrophied body with contoured muscles that complimented her body well...but he still worried that she was doing a little too much.

"Perhaps you should take some time to rest."

She gave him a sharp look.

"Are you saying I'm incapable?"

"Not at all."

"Then let me do this."

It almost sounded like she was requesting it of him, not telling him. That too was different, the master told himself. She was becoming much more...dare he think it? ….subtle in her words. Not in actions, but definitely with how she spoke. What was spoken as a simple question could actually mean so much more now, she had taught herself to inter-lay so many things in fewer words. Perhaps the time away from Skywalker had done her just the slightest bit of good.

"...I'm sorry, Master Plo."

He was floored.

"What for, young one?"

She stood with a slight sigh, beginning to pace back and forth like a caged Bantha beast in a circus.

"I – I keep doing that. I keep getting so defensive when I think someone's telling me I can't do something."

"It is understandable," he told her as soothingly as he could, "You had quite the ordeal. I'm sure it will take some time with the soul-healers to bring you back to where you are comfortable."

Ahsoka felt her heart drop. She didn't have the courage to tell him that she had only gone to half of those meetings and only half-hearted it when she did go. What was the point of talking to someone who was only there to listen as their living? Unconsciously she felt her upper lip curl back just enough for her teeth to brush through.

"Ahsoka."

She looked to the master who hadn't moved, but even through the mask over his eyes she could tell the look he was giving her. It was a gentle warning, and Ahsoka decided to heed it. She had been so strong with the Force since this had all ended, and it took her no time at all to release her sudden anger and bitterness into the never-ending void that was the Force. It flew off of her so readily and the light flooded in, tickling her lips with a tiny smile when she looked at her friend again.

"Good job, Little 'Soka."

There was the pride that made her want to jump for joy. Skyguy wasn't there to really instruct her (he was always there in her mind, and in the times she had felt so overwhelmed to the point of tears it was him she ran to and him who pushed so much warmth and love into her mind that she wanted to cry in joy), but Master Plo had always been the one who was the calming voice. Not to say Master Obi-Wan wasn't calming, but the human seemed to...push more than Master Plo did. Master Obi-Wan was more of a one who had perceptions of Jedi, and those perceptions had to be followed before he felt comfortable instructing, or even just talking, to a person in the Order. Master Plo was a bit different in that accord. He was more one to watch far off from a distance and, though he too had his own perceptions, he tried to view it from the point of view of the person. Next to Anakin, Plo knew her best and knew the fight she been in, not only during her hospital stay but even now as she stood not too far away from him.

Her mind had been occupied since she had come back. Ahsoka was distracted in her studies, though she was passing it wasn't with the ease that she had displayed before. He would catch her staring off into space at random times, standing straighter and stronger in appearance. He knew what it was that she as doing and, although he couldn't quite say that he fully approved, he knew that she was in a war for inner peace.

"Please, sit Ahsoka," the master told her, gesturing to the spot in front of him where she had sat not too long ago.

She obeyed without question, moving to sit in the lotus position directly across from him but not meeting his eye. She knew that he was onto her.

"Ahsoka," Plo pried just slightly, and was awarded with her eyes, "It's time for you to let it go."

She looked confused.

"I've been going to the soul-healers, master," she began to protest.

"That is not what I mean," he corrected, and she bobbed her head in acknowledgment. Of course he would have figured it out by now. He was trying to be gentle with her, "You will see him again."

She released a breath she hadn't known she was holding. It wasn't on purpose that she had kept reaching out to the one who had given her her life back...of course, he had made it so she couldn't find him. In the back of her mind she knew why, but the childish part of her kept demanding to know why.

Her friend was no fool – he had cut her completely out of his mind for a reason. He had forced her to be on her own, to be strong on her own two feet and within her own standing without his input, all fr one simple reason. He wasn't sure at that point whether or not that with his sacrifice for her if he himself would have enough to live on. He had cut her away just in case the worst happened.

She had heard nothing about him since she had left. Not a whisper, not a hint of what might have happened to him or what his fate might have been. Did he stay on Shili? Did he come back to the Temple? ...did he... she couldn't think that. She looked to Master Plo.

"I can't NOT think about him," she whispered, "I feel...worried for him. He gave so much for me."

"And he did so knowing what might happen," the Jedi told her, staying as detached as he could, "View his sacrifice as a gift, Little 'Soka. He gave you another chance to become the master that I know you will be."

He had such confidence in her...confidence she no longer had in herself.

"...I know. I just wish I knew what happened to him, is all. I just want to know he's okay."

The master gave her a look that she couldn't quite pin down – and she was very good at reading her old friend. With an air of purpose he stood, looking down at her with a hidden smile.

"Have a good night, young one," he told her suddenly and just like that he was gone, only a small whooshing of air marking his exit.

Ahsoka quirked an eyebrow ridge. That certainly was odd of him, but with this war everyone was acting off. She slowly rose to her feet, grabbing her robe and tossing it about her shoulders to guard her sleeveless arms as she trotted out of the gym, slowing her stride when her over-worked legs twinged in protest at the fast motion. Perhaps Master Plo was right. It was time for a day off.

The Coruscant sun had just begun to fall, not quite changing its color just yet as it warmed the soft-colored granite walls of the Temple in its glow. The large plaza was what Ahsoka affectionately called 'the rotary' – so many paths led here. The Gardens, the gym, the library, the healing halls, the conference rooms, the youngling center – oh yes, many a Jedi would come through the large open space to get to where they were going, most minding their own business and only giving acknowledgment in the form of a curt nod to one another.

Today was no exception, she noted as she slowly came down the stairs into the rotary. Many robes and forms of sentient beings were fluttering and mottling about, all going here to there without too much thought of where they were going. It was a powerful sight, seeing so many of what she viewed as her family in one place, all crossing over the white stone ground with fair steps – it made her heart swell.

She entered the large open ground and slowly walked, looking at the small flowers and plants and listening to the soft twitting of the miniature birds that fluttered endlessly about. It was so peaceful...she smiled at a kind woman who passed by. In the warmth of the sun, she couldn't help but stop to savor it at the foot of the outside stairs that led to the library.

Her eyes caught something off to her right, a single person walking separated from the others. Whoever it was was quite engrossed in whatever it was that they were reading on the holo-disc in their outstretched right hand. Such a sight was far from uncommon, but Ahsoka couldn't help but laugh at her fellow Togrutan. So different from her – it took Skyguy practically tying her to a chair to get her to read anything but battle plans. It was so funny how a boy that was so near her age could –

Her mind froze. She squinted at the approaching young Togrutan boy. With blood-red skin, he was obviously a figure that stood out against the brown cloaks around him. He wore black and gold traditional robes, ones that she recognized as the ancient garb of the gladiators of old that her people celebrated still to this day, and his laceless shoes matched the garb. A soft, bristle-colored fur band ran around the top of his head at the beginning of his montrals, his lekku oddly tied behind his head, as if in a human ponytail, by a leather strap.

None of this is what caught her eye as he approached from a distance – it was his birthmark. Unlike her elegant, shape marks, his ran so messily from the bridge of his nose to the middle of his forehead where it burst into a beautiful white star. He was directly across from her now, honey-colored eyes still buried into the information in front of him.

Ahsoka felt her breath leave her lungs with one word.

"Dji."

Even more than twenty feet away the boy heard the whisper and he stopped cold, his head shooting sharply up as the fur that lined his scalp rustled in the light breeze. With one blink the dark red head turned to look at her, the sharp golden eyes immediately lighting up with recognition when he saw her. Ahsoka thought she was going to cry when she saw it.

The starlit streak.

**IOIOIOIOIOIOI**

There we are! What did you think? Maybe after the second sequel I will begin yet another story, but I have to think on it for a while. :)

Happy Writing,

~Eliana


End file.
